More than 400 Mainers sign up for medical marijuana

PORTLAND, Maine — More than 400 Mainers applied to the state for permission to be medical marijuana patients under a new state law.

Starting on Saturday, Mainers had to be registered with the state before legally using marijuana to ease the painful symptoms of cancer, AIDS and other medical conditions. For the past decade, patients needed only a doctor’s authorization.

The Maine Sunday Telegram says applications streamed into the Maine Department of Health and Human Services during the final days and weeks of 2010, and hundreds more are expected in the next several weeks. Officials say they expect to give registration cards to 1,200 or more patients by the time the initial rush is over this spring.